Unemployment rates fall

March 16, 2012

According to a report from the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, Oklahoma's unemployment fell in January, shedding 0.2 percentage points over the month. Over the year, the state's unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 percent.
Out of an approximate labor force of 1,784,580 Oklahoma workers, 1,675,780 are reported as employed and only 109,060 are reported as unemployed, giving the state an unemployment rate of 6.1 percent.
The national unemployment rate is reported as 8.3 percent with 141,637,000 American workers employed out of a labor force of 154,395,000 workers leaving 12,758,000 Americans without employment.
Of Oklahoma's 11 economic job supersectors, eight reported job gains in the first month of 2012. The largest job gains came from the Trade, Transportation, and Utilities supersector which added approximately 3,500 jobs in January. This growth is reportedly driven by a surge in the Retail Trade supersector. Eight statewide supersectors also added jobs for the January-to-January period, led once again by Trade, Transportation, and Utilities which saw an increase of 8,200 jobs over the year.
Job losses for January were reported in the Construction, Educational and Health Services, and Government supersectors. Over the year job losses were reported by the Construction, Information, and Other Services supersectors.